Actor and filmmaker Ben Stiller has long balanced a prolific career with a high-profile family life, but his latest project digs deeper than ever before.
The documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost not only honours his parents, comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, but also prompts a raw evaluation of his own role as a father.
Filmed over several years and premiering at the New York Film Festival on October 5, the documentary charts Jerry and Anne’s trajectory from early comedy breakthrough through to their legacy.
It chronicles late nights, family travel, and a childhood in showbusiness that Stiller says shaped him profoundly.
As Stiller turned the lens outward, he found it was pointing inward too. He candidly revealed,
“I just felt out of balance and unhappy and kind of disconnected from my family.”
And here’s the moment central to the story: his children spoke. Daughter Ella Olivia Stiller told her father,
“I literally can’t ever remember you being around when I was growing up.”
Son Quinlin Dempsey Stiller told the camera that he felt being a father sometimes came last in his dad’s priorities. “You have all these hats that you’re trying to balance… being a director, an actor … but also, just, like, a father,” Quinlin said.
Stiller doesn’t shy away from hard truths: “The irony is, I thought I was doing so much better than my parents … but in reality … it was the same thing I was going through as a kid, and I just couldn’t see that at all at the time.”
He also names one regret as the “worst decision I ever made in my life” cutting Ella’s role from his 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
That decision, he explains, stemmed from his perfectionism but hurt his daughter’s trust.
The family’s past includes a separation from his wife Christine Taylor in 2017 and a reunion during the pandemic, which Stiller says transformed their dynamic and gave him fresh perspective on parenthood.
Now, Stiller aims to use the documentary not only as a family portrait, but as a bridge.
“I feel like I have a really great relationship with my kids, but it’s complicated and has at times been strained,” he admits.
In the end, the biggest admission comes from the kids themselves: they felt his absence.
Ella and Quinlin’s honest voices push Stiller to own the fact that his career success came with a cost he only recognised too late. And it is in that recognition that the story finds its power.
Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost is now showing in select theatres and will stream on Apple TV+ from October 24.
This is not just the story of Hollywood comedy royalty, it’s a confession, a reckoning, and a father’s promise to show up.
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